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Famous Idries Shah Quotes

“We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science that can exert a beneficial influence on individuals and societies, in accordance with the needs of those individuals and societies ... Sufi study and development gives one capacities one did not have before.”

PeopleWayNeedsGivingArtActionIndividualBeliefViewsStudyInfluenceDevelopmentCapacityIdeologySufismRight WaySufiBeneficialMoldIndividuals And Society
Author:Idries Shah
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“Christian scholars often say that Sufi theories are close to those of Christianity. Many Moslems maintain that they are essentially derived from Islam. The resemblance of many Sufi ideas to those of several religious and esoteric systems are sometimes taken as evidence of derivation. The Islamic interpretation is that religion is of one origin, differences being due to local or historical causes.”

IdeasSometimesChristianCausesDifferencesReligiousChristianityTakenTheoryEvidenceHistoricalIslamDuesLocalsIslamicInterpretationScholarSufiResemblanceEsoteric
Book:The Elephant in the Dark
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“Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning.”

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Book:The Sufis
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“Like the bat, the Sufi is asleep to 'things of the day' - the familiar struggle for existence which the ordinary man finds all-important - and vigilant while others are asleep. In other words, he keeps awake the spiritual attention dormant in others. That 'mankind sleeps in a nightmare of unfulfillment' is a commonplace of Sufi literature”

MenImportantSpiritualLiteratureSleepExistenceAttentionStruggleMankindOrdinaryFamiliarAwakeNightmareBatsSufiCommonplaceVigilantOrdinary ManDormantStruggle For ExistenceUnfulfillment
Book:The Sufis
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“The main problem is that most commentators are accustomed to thinking of spiritual schools as 'systems', which are more or less alike, and which depend upon dogma and ritual: and especially upon repetition and the application of continual and standardised pressures upon their followers.The Sufi way, except in degenerate forms which are not to be classified as Sufic, is entirely different from this.”

ThinkingWayDifferentProblemSchoolSpiritualFormDependsPressureRitualFollowersApplicationDogmaRepetitionSufiAccustomedCommentatorsDegenerates
Author:Idries Shah
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